The Lock Screen on the iPhone is simply the most under-utilized part of the iPhone OS. Knowing Apple, I am sure they have something planned for us somewhere down the line to make use of what is now just a wallpaper with the time and a slide to unlock screen. But until then, we have Lockinfo (available in Cydia) to hold us over.

Lockinfo is an application that makes use of that screen real-estate by putting your most important data all in one place without have go through several apps to obtain that information. As you can see in the picture above, just by turning on my display, I get a preview of my emails, my upcoming calendar entries and tasks as well as a list of all your push notifications if you so desire. By default, you will also find that any missed calls, text messages or voicemails, will also be listed.

There are additional plugins that are available in Cydia as separate installs.

*There is a Twitter plugin available for Lockinfo that add Twitter mentions and direct messages to your Lock Screen.

*There is also a RSS Feed Plugin that allows you to scan through your favorite feeds right on the Lock Screen.

*My personal favorite is the Weather Plugin. It displays the current weather right on your Lock Screen and a revealed weekly forecast when tapping on the current weather.

Go to the Cydia app on your iPhone and do a search for "Lockinfo". If you don't have the Cydia store on your iPhone, it's because you haven't jailbroke your iPhone. Visit my previous post for instructions on how to do so. (This only works if you have not updated your iPhone to 4.0.2) After you input your search for Lockinfo, you will also see all of the plugins I have previously mentioned. Install what you want and then reboot your iPhone. After a reboot, go to the Settings app on your iPhone and scroll down to where you see Lockinfo. It will take you sometime (took me a couple hours), getting everything setup the way you want it. There is a learning curve, but you will learn quickly what works for you and what doesn't. Have fun with it. Lockinfo gives us what other smart phones have been giving us for years, your most up to date, important information at a glance.

On the next episode, we will try something different with notification management. Stay tuned and subscribe if you haven't already.